What if Lavoy Allen and Andre Iguodala's 76ers had beaten the Celtics in 2012?
The 76ers were famously one win away from the Eastern Conference finals. What if they had gotten there?
Lavoy Allen wonders what would have happened if the 76ers won Game 7 of their 2012 Eastern Conference semifinal playoff series against the Boston Celtics.
Had that happened, Allen wonders if he would still be a Sixer.
"We would have had a couple of more years with [Nik] Vucevic, Andre Iguodala, and a few of the guys," said Allen, now a reserve power forward with the Indiana Pacers. "We would have had some more good years if we would have kept that team together."
However, the Sixers traded Iguodala to the Denver Nuggets and Vucevic and first-round pick Maurice Harkless to Orlando Magic in exchange for Andrew Bynum and Jason Richardson as part of a four-team trade that included the Los Angeles Lakers on Aug. 10, 2012.
Lou Williams signed a free-agent deal with the Atlanta Hawks that summer. The team also waived Elton Brand under the league's amnesty clause.
Then coach Doug Collins informed the Sixers in January 2013 that he intended to leave at the end of the season, which he did. The Sixers then hired Sam Hinkie as general manager in May of that year.
One of Hinkie's first moves was trading all-star point guard Jrue Holiday on the night of the 2013 draft to jump-start the rebuilding phase known as "The Process."
The team then traded away Evan Turner and Allen to the Pacers and Spencer Hawes to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Feb. 20, 2014. Then the Sixers traded Thaddeus Young to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Aug 23, 2014.
Young and Allen are now teammates with the Pacers.
"We win the game, and we beat Boston, the team stays together," Young said of the 2012 playoff series. "Maybe I'm still a Sixer. Maybe he's still a Sixer. A lot of things have changed since then. But we all remember that series."
Summer league return for Ben Simmons?
Sixers coach Brett Brown was asked about the possibility of Ben Simmons playing in the summer league.
"I think it would be good if he did," Brown said. "But I wouldn't say it is a prerequisite. Still, his health and the judgment of his health rules the day. I don't know what that looks like when we are talking about the summer league."
The first overall pick of the 2016 draft missed the entire season after surgery on his right foot.